January 2011

A timeless master of lettering, Michael Doret has been a source of inspiration for young letterers and typographers for decades. He began his career in the 1970’s, creating some now ubiquitous typography, like the Knicks, Fuddruckers & the Graphic Artist’s Guild logos. While those are his more famous logotypes, Michael has a vast portfolio of beautiful & interestingly composed original works.

Description from Jon’s site: “Adios LA is a visual goodbye to the city Jon Jackson has called home for years as the artist heads east making New York his new home. Not wanting to string LA along, he has decided to firmly break it off through a graphic billboard series posted on the famous streets of his first love.Jon Jackson has spent nearly his entire life wearing shorts living in LA. He is now zipping the pant legs back on and moving east. Jon is leaving Los Angeles to work for HUGE as a Creative DIrector in Brooklyn”

Ohio based image-maker Andrew Neyer displays a wonderful portfolio featuring a myriad of colorful illustrations and artwork, as well as well designed items such as zines and shirts. His work feels like snapshots; peeking into the inner workings of an everyday world in motion.Read the rest of this entry »

Upon publication in 1996, printed matter was labeled an instant classic in the world of design publishing. This beautifully designed visual survey of the career of Dutch graphic designer Karel Martens is a tactile distillation of Martens’s unique and personal approach to design. Projects—ranging from postage stamps to books to signs on buildings—are arranged in layouts that fully explore the print process. The first edition of printed matter rapidly sold out along with a second edition published in 2001. This third and final edition includes a new interview with Martens and brings the survey of his work to 2010, marking fifty years of practice.

I found the happiest illustrations of little monsters while thumbing through my latest issue of Virgin’s Roger magazine. Sure enough, these small creatures were created by none other than UK based illustrator Brett Wilkinson, better known by his pseudonym Onesidezero. Brett creates imaginative worlds by incorporating geometric patterns and forms, vibrant colors, and mythical creatures. This piece, titled “Busy Doing Nothing,” clearly depicts this world with its It’s clean shapes, complementary color palette, and fun patterns.

Wucius Wong’s 1976 release, Principles of Three-Dimensional Design, is an educational book aimed at helping designers and artists wrap their heads around the physical space of objects. Concentrating on the use of simple planes and lines in geometric constructions combined with a thorough breakdown of our understanding of three-dimensional objects, Wong demonstrates how seemingly complex configurations can be easy to plan and construct. What I really want to share with you, however, are the tremendous images of models and diagrams created for the pages of this publication. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a big fan of Rilla Alexander’s work, so I was super excited to hear about her new book, Her Idea. Through beautiful illustrations and fun rhymes Rilla chronicles the journey of a little girl named Sozi who struggles to put her concepts into reality. Although the story is presented in a picture book format, I’m hesitant to call this a “children’s book” as I believe the message resonates with all of us. This tale is especially timely as many of us are seeking to change our procrastinating ways as part of our new year’s resolutions.

In this interview, Rilla shares the inspiration for the book and some of the challenges she faced along the way. Here we go!

Witty and clever are two words that describe one of my favorite artists/typographic people, Ray Fenwick. A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Ray is far from the main hubs of the creative population, which in a strange way makes his extreme creativity even more interesting. His inventive style of hand-drawn and often calligraphic style is paired with subtle hilarity, and his work is always sure to make you smile.Read the rest of this entry »

Milan based illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli has a zest for creating fun and colorful illustrations that are thoughtful in their approach and execution. Inspired by illustrators from Spain and France, as well as Italian illustrator Bruno Munari, Olimpia creates a style all her own, melding modern simplicity with bursts of color and fanciful shapes and lines.

Taking another look back into San Francisco design studios as they stood in the late ’70s, I bring you the second in a series of posts from the book Graphic Design San Francisco. Today, we’ll take a look at Keating & Keating, who in present day is known as Kate Keating Associates, Inc., a heavy hitting SF corporate design firm.

“Keating & Keating have an attitude toward their work that can be stated in a definition of graphic design as ‘the architecture of visual communication.’ They believe that a project should entail not just applied cosmetics, but rather must be approached from a thorough problem-solving process in order to be successful.” Read the rest of this entry »

Australian designer Les Mason passed away in 2009, but his work lives on in this beautiful limited edition publication designed by Dominic Hofstede. Les Mason: Epicurean Magazine 1966 – 1979 features color reproductions of covers and a selection of internal spreads from the 77 issues of Epicurean Magazine that he served as creative director. Les was an influential figure in the Melbourne design community and many consider this to be his defining work.

A renaissance woman of sorts, Deanne Cheuk has made a name for herself in the art world as a prolific illustrator. She quickly ventured into hand drawn & custom typography and has really created some amazing things since she began her journey into the world of type. While her work doesn’t always fit within a certain style, Deanne brings an distinct elegance to the art of the display type.

I love the portfolio from Austin-based designer Ryan Rhodes (aka Bigger than Giants). His work represents an interesting range of styles and ideas, and he also possesses some superbly handy typographic skills. (See the inked type work for JBG Farms above and below.)

With a collection of 3,250 glorious icons, Handbook of Pictorial Symbols is great inspiration for any designer. Gathered from sources from around the world, these elegant yet minimal icons are a reminder that simplicity is truly key. Below is a small selection of my favorites from the book.

Bossa Nova music arrived in Brazil at the end of the 1950s with an optimism and modernism that paralleled the arrival of the new Brazilian president, Juscelino Kubitschek, who promised ‘fifty years of progress in five’ in his election campaign and announced the building of a new capital city, Brasilia, deep in the heartland of Brazil. The city was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a man who had just designed a new musical theatre production in Rio of a play written by Vinicius de Moraes and with music written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. These two, along with the singer João Gilberto were about to make Bossa Nova, the first modernist Brazilian art form, the most succesful Brazilian export since coffee.